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Well, you'll find a lot of quality builds over on the 405th for Halo armor and helmets. Though, you'll also see a lot of poor completed costumes too.

I built my custom Mando armor and helmet completely from Pepakura. T-Bone here has built a beautiful Royal Guard helmet from one of my files. I'm nearing the end of my DC-17 build. I made Pepakura templates for that but built it using sheet styrene instead of the usual card/fibreglass/bondo method. That's fine for helmets and armor but no good for weapons really.

I'll post some WIP pics of my Mando armor:

Done!!!

The DC-17 so far:

I also built my Snow Clone helmet(now available as a kit )using Pepakura to get the guts of it done before building it up and detailing it later.

Some people call it "Mud", other(such as myself) call it "Rondo". It's basically Bondo/filler mixed with fibreglass resin in a 1/1 ratio. Mix it, then add the hardener. The filler and resin are both polyester based so the hardeners are compatable in most cases.

I didn't discover it by myself(can't take credit for that), I read about it on the 405th. Works well for smoothing out large areas and domes! Saves a heap of sanding and waste of filler too.

I used Rondo for my Mando armor but for my Mando lid and Snow Clone I used standard filler as I hadn't discovered the Rondo method.

Thanks very much, glad you like my work.

I will add though that Pepakura is a great tool. Especially for those who have no sculpting skill or access to CNC or 3D printing tech. However, it still takes a lot of work and patience to make a Pepakura piece GOOD! Many have give up on Pepakura projects as they hit a wall during the filler/sanding process and give up. I think that's why many people out there kinda look down on Pepakura as a realistic method to produce quality costume pieces. The see some of the (dare I say it) half a**ed builds out there and make their minds up based on that. If you look around though you'll see the dedicated and talented people who can take card,FG, and filler and make some truly wonderful pieces!! You'd never know what the origins where unless you were told.

Well, I'm glad to have helped. Watching your progress (and yours, stormtrooperguy) is a pleasure. Maybe all this "watching other people do the hard work" will make it a little easier when I start my armor...

Some people call it "Mud", other(such as myself) call it "Rondo". It's basically Bondo/filler mixed with fibreglass resin in a 1/1 ratio. Mix it, then add the hardener. The filler and resin are both polyester based so the hardeners are compatable in most cases.

But Andrew, when creating the "Rondo", what kind of hardener do you use for the mixture? The liquid catalyzer for the resin, the pink paste for the bondo, both of them at the same time? Can the "Rondo" be easyly sanded?

The Rondo is very sandable actually. Not as sandable as plain Bondo/filler due the the resin content but easy enough to not cause a problem.

I use the filler/Bondo hardener as it changes the colour of the Rondo mix so you get a better idea as to whether or not you used enough hardener. Plus the resin hardener I've found doesn't work as well.

I'm not sure if I have time to write a full tutorial. I also find it difficult to find the right words sometimes to explain things. LOL! For more info on Pepakura, your best bet is to visit the 405th Halo costuming forum. There are loads of tutorials there, that explain all you need to know.

Also, if I did list the products I use here, you may not be able to get them in France? For example, "Bondo" is a US brand that we don't get here in the UK. Though any polyester based car body filler is suitable.

ok thanks ^^
In fact, as Bondo is a brand (I visited their site), which product did you use ? (3M™ Body Fillers, 3M™ Fiberglass Repair, Hardeners,... ). In France we have stores called "Nauroto" or "Feuvert" And they have this kind of products but I'm really new at creating props with this material, I usually use pvc sheets but I don't completely like it ^^"